Thursday, June 25

When I christened my weblog "No Man's Land", it was actually meant in a dysphemic sense. How things are spanning out in Kerala kind of concur to the real meaning of the term. Kerala is turning out to be a classic oxymoron.

The amazing consistency in which Keralaites kill off the geese with golden eggs baffles me. In a land where industrial productivity is close to the null factor, any trickle of investments cropping up are destined to vaporize in a matter of months.

Kerala, perhaps will be the state with the maximum no of paper tigers in the shape of investment proposals. All of them either condemned to be still born or subject to an eternal gestation period. Here is the roll...

Tagline: It is getting clearer that this is a case of the fence stealing its own produce. The whole blame lies on the Chief Minister and his handling of the IT Dept. It was all mumbo-jumbo all the way down and the sheikhs have packed their bags, for good. Pinarayi won, Achumama lost, but whose loss is it eventually?? The other Smart City in Malta is well on way to completion. Did I hear the R-word?

Project: TechnocityConceived: 2003Location: TrivandrumType: IT ParkJob opportunities: 2,00,000Area: 500 acresDeveloper: nobodyStatus: on paper for the past 5 years. Land acquisition still not over.Credits: Efficiency of IT Dept headed by the inutile CM. Not able to pool the land even after 3 long years.

Tagline: ok, blame it on the recession, but where is the land for development? No infrastructure constructed yet, and the Govt still haven't a clue about the no: of families which need to be evicted.

Project: Vizhinjam Port Conceived: 1960Location: TrivandrumType: Port projectArea: 2000 acresJob opportunities: 2,00,000Developer: This project has the unique credits of 2 developers embroiled in a cat fight for the construction rights. We all knew where this was heading, didn't we?Status: Almost dead, awaiting resuscitationCredits: The regional foulplays, filthy lobbying and legal-bureaucratic tangles.

Tagline: The worst debacle of them all...the latest casualty... The horoscope-changing project is all in doldrums now, courtesy some vested, regionalistic business interests. The project seems on its way back to the drawing board, and a huge whip to the development ambitions of Trivandrum and Kerala. This mentality of "only in my backyard" has virtually strangled a landmark project.

Project: Cochin MetroConceived: 2004Location: CochinType: Transport InfrastructureJob opportunities: 1000Developer: UnknownStatus: runs on paper, still no idea as to how the project is going to be implementedCredits: Policymakers, NIMBY-ism along the proposed corridors

Tagline: No one appears to be sure what to do with this one. Files are flying between offices and by the time they settle it may well be 2020. As for Cochin, suffer for a few more years on the roads, that looks to be the fate.

Tagline: Who is serious about this one when you have another Int'l airport barely 70 km south? Oh, when we are talking about paper tigers lets talk about Jumbo ones, shan't we?

Project: National Highway DevelopmentConceived: 1990sLocation: pan-KeralaType: Infrastructure developmentDeveloper: Govt of IndiaStatus: no sign of labour painCredits: The current CPM led Govt and their moth-eaten ideologies.

Tagline: When the whole nation was marching ahead with the Centrally sponsored project, Kerala commited the heinous act of wasting 2 precious years 'discussing' the toll-issue. A few 'policy' issues are yet to be sorted out. God save the commuters!

Project: Kerala Expressway Project Conceived: 2000Location: All KeralaType: Transport InfrastructureDeveloper: hahahahahaaaaaaStatus: Project included in the PWD website, for a start.Credits: a couple of leading dailies, political foulplay, poor marketing techniques, myopic administration and the infamous mallu skepticism

Tagline: Now there are talks about a North-South Road, not an expressway. It will be access controlled and 60m wide. Perhaps if you call a crow a swan its colour may change? How very communist-ic.. :chuckle:

Tagline: Kerala featured in the primary list of possible locations a few years back. Again the regionalistic differences torpedoed another conerstone development, and the IITs proposed along with ours have started functioning. Lets hit the sack, comfy...

All this in a world where markets are evolving into highly competitive ones and moving towards the goal of self-sustainability. We toil for a better today so that our children could work, play and live in this beautiful land.. The question is how many generations could we afford to destroy?

Saturday, June 13

This post has absolutely nothing to do with anything/anyone else other than me, me and me... Yes, let me take the liberty of writing a few words about myself and my family this time :)

I'm a daddy now.

Life has changed permanently for me from 9th May 2009 19:33 hrs GMT when I saw my little little baby girl arriving in this big big world...

I don't know how to describe the feeling of seeing your offspring for the first time, the pleasure of taking her into your arms and the rejoice of hearing her cry out for the first time...She is immediately a part of my heart... Its seventh-heaven.

They say we pass through very few milestones in your life before the finale. As a kid or as an adolescent I remember the date when I first bunked class to watch Rangeela, first day in College, my first bike and car, the day I proposed to my first love, first time I flew in an aircraft and even more trivial things like that. But the first big day in our life would probably be the wedding day, but there is nothing as significant as the day you see the face of your first child.

Nothing in life can give you more pleasure...I wouldn't be more exuberant if I had hit the Euromillions jackpot that day, honestly.

Especially when you consider how you're blessed with a healthy child. Nothing more matters.

Its a great joy to pass through this developmental crisis and I'm taking some good hard lessons to graduate from a man to a daddy, and tell you what, its not easy. I'm not sure when I'll get the cert but if at all, this is one test I want to come out with flying colours.

You know I'm all ears now, from matured and experienced parents of how to rear my child. I've been told to learn to be cruel to be kind, that you cannot spoil a child with love, to learn to say no and about what to give and what not to. I'm taking it all, you never know which advice would come in handy and when.

This is a time when you start looking at yourself and the world through a different angle. My life revolved around the job, my wife and the computer, but all of a sudden the fulcrum has changed. Now the days and nights move around my piece of moon and its amazing how naturally and effortlessly she has managed to get hold of the pivot.

How can I speak about my daughter and keep mum about the woman who did all the sacrifices? How can I ever forget my sweetheart wife who refused to take Domperidone for those distressing sickness, Gaviscon for the heartburn and even Paracetamol for the splitting headaches for the fear of her treasure inside her. Being a medical professional herself, I was surprised by her total reluctance to take in the chemicals which even the docs gave green signal to.

And I'm not talking about the difficulties in changing a nappy or sponging the li'l one, its laughable if you compare with what my better half went through. Daddy talks more but mother knows best!

So I'm all elated to be in the daddy's club, at the same time I miss my father, terrible, who departed a bit too early. I know his blessings will be with his grand-daughter but that's the way life is. You control most parts of your life, but there are instances where you're nothing but a helpless spectator.

Special thanks to Mathew for encouraging me to put this up. And all of a sudden, an old movie I saw, Father of the Bride has sprung up as my all time favs!

Dedicating this post to my father who left this world on 24th April 2008.